Oculus Finally Acknowledges Rift Launch Delay

We all knew there was a problem with the Oculus Rift launch as early pre-order customers reported they had no idea when their Rift would be arriving and had little updates from Oculus as the launch window week came and went.

Now in an email sent to customers, Oculus has cited “an unexpected component shortage” as the cause of the widespread launch-week shipping delays for the Oculus Rift headset.

In an effort to make it up to customers, Oculus is covering shipping costs for all orders made before yesterday and said everyone’s order status page should be updated with a new shipping window by April 12.

Although many early customers have been frustrated and upset all week with the lack of communication, offering free shipping even on international orders, which can cost as much as $100, is a significant cost for Oculus to bear for their launch delay. It’s an honest gesture from Oculus and might buy them the time they need to get the Rift launch back on track before anger boils up again.

Oculus Rift’s CEO, Brendan Iribe, also took to Twitter to acknowledge orders “are going out slower than we orig estimated,” and that Oculus was covering shipping costs for any order placed through today, including pre-orders and international orders.

First set of Rifts are going out slower than we orig estimated, so we're giving free shipping for all pre-orders, including international.

Palmer Luckey, the Oculus founder, commented on the Oculus subreddit yesterday to acknowledge customers’ demands for comment but was unable to provide a concrete reply on when orders would be fulfilled.